X-Ray, the Final Woman and the Medical Slasher Film
This presentation examines X-Ray or Hospital Massacre (1981), a film of the first slasher cycle with a more mature protagonist than most and a relatively rare medical setting. It extends Carol Clover’s ideas by showing how X-Ray is heavily concerned with medical issues, in particular the Foucauldian “medical gaze.” The titular X-ray becomes a structural model for the invasive, destructive gazes deployed throughout the film, both by its villain and by the medical environment itself.
- Murray Leeder (University of Manitoba, CA)
This presentation examines X-Ray or Hospital Massacre (1981), a film of the first slasher cycle with a more mature protagonist than most and a relatively rare medical setting. It extends Carol Clover’s ideas by showing how X-Ray is heavily concerned with medical issues, in particular the Foucauldian “medical gaze.” The titular X-ray becomes a structural model for the invasive, destructive gazes deployed throughout the film, both by its villain and by the medical environment itself.
The Maturing of Madness: The Rise of Adult-centric Slashers in 1982
In May 1982, Variety reported that the teen “stalk and slash” cycle was waning in popularity. Box office numbers were down, and the market was oversaturated. If 1981 was the Golden Year of the slasher - an era where profits matched supply and demand, then 1982 was a coolingoff period. Producers and distributors struggled to find the next big trend. However, as slashers are sometimes prone to twists, the releases of 1982 saw an ironic one. Certain subgenre offerings moved away from adolescence and turned their focus towards older protagonists.
If adult figures were rendered as indifferent, helpless, or even ruthless by the teen protagonists of earlier releases (Prom Night, Happy Birthday to Me, Night Warning, etc.), the tables turned in 1982 as older, vibrant characters emerged in similar settings, attempting to survive another day. Many of these entries (Visiting Hours, Ghost Dance, The Last Horror Film, etc.) hosted career-driven female protagonists. Other films (The Forest, Honeymoon Horror, The Slayer, etc.) placed an emphasis on marital woes. All entries followed the basic slasher blueprint, but often spoke towards the disillusionment of adulthood in a different way than previous titles.
Plenty has been written about teenagers in slasher films, but what about adult protagonists, and adult spectatorship? These more mature offerings have quite a bit to say about the cultural landscape of 1982, and I argue that more attention should be placed on the content of the adult-centric fare, because it subverts the stereotype of viewership, while also providing a space for older audiences to explore their own anxieties.
- Amanda Reyes (Independent Scholar, US)
In May 1982, Variety reported that the teen “stalk and slash” cycle was waning in popularity. Box office numbers were down, and the market was oversaturated. If 1981 was the Golden Year of the slasher - an era where profits matched supply and demand, then 1982 was a coolingoff period. Producers and distributors struggled to find the next big trend. However, as slashers are sometimes prone to twists, the releases of 1982 saw an ironic one. Certain subgenre offerings moved away from adolescence and turned their focus towards older protagonists.
If adult figures were rendered as indifferent, helpless, or even ruthless by the teen protagonists of earlier releases (Prom Night, Happy Birthday to Me, Night Warning, etc.), the tables turned in 1982 as older, vibrant characters emerged in similar settings, attempting to survive another day. Many of these entries (Visiting Hours, Ghost Dance, The Last Horror Film, etc.) hosted career-driven female protagonists. Other films (The Forest, Honeymoon Horror, The Slayer, etc.) placed an emphasis on marital woes. All entries followed the basic slasher blueprint, but often spoke towards the disillusionment of adulthood in a different way than previous titles.
Plenty has been written about teenagers in slasher films, but what about adult protagonists, and adult spectatorship? These more mature offerings have quite a bit to say about the cultural landscape of 1982, and I argue that more attention should be placed on the content of the adult-centric fare, because it subverts the stereotype of viewership, while also providing a space for older audiences to explore their own anxieties.
In Love With Your Nightmares: Franchise Mutations and How Freddy Krueger Became the Hero of Elm Street
In the press kit for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), franchise monster Freddy Krueger is described as “not merely a quintessential villain, but an unlikely hero whose dark sense of humour remains his saving grace.” The Elm Street franchise’s incremental prioritising and palliating of Freddy’s ‘antics’ over the nuances of adolescence explored in each film’s main characters has seen the franchise move from psychological horror to self-aware tragicomedy within seven short years.
This paper will examine the trajectory and ramifications of Freddy’s commercial iconification, drawing on issues and decisions made during each film’s production as well as how his transmedia appearances – via music video, TV and merchandising – contributed to his perversely ‘heroic’ cultural status. As The Dream Child's press kit asserts that Freddy “occupies a singular place in the tradition of such anti-heroes as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman[,]” this will also explore the inherent problems of comparing him to other icons whose diversities of depth have been explored in multiple disconnected adaptations while Freddy largely exists in one continuity. Ultimately, a model of viewing the Elm Street franchise – and Freddy himself – as a multiplicity rather than a continuity; each film a variation of the same story told through different thematic and critical lenses, with Freddy’s characterisation changing to fit each one as opposed to, despite the franchise’s increasingly convoluted attempts, presenting him as a canonically consistent character.
- Sam R.M. Geden (University of Essex, UK)
In the press kit for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), franchise monster Freddy Krueger is described as “not merely a quintessential villain, but an unlikely hero whose dark sense of humour remains his saving grace.” The Elm Street franchise’s incremental prioritising and palliating of Freddy’s ‘antics’ over the nuances of adolescence explored in each film’s main characters has seen the franchise move from psychological horror to self-aware tragicomedy within seven short years.
This paper will examine the trajectory and ramifications of Freddy’s commercial iconification, drawing on issues and decisions made during each film’s production as well as how his transmedia appearances – via music video, TV and merchandising – contributed to his perversely ‘heroic’ cultural status. As The Dream Child's press kit asserts that Freddy “occupies a singular place in the tradition of such anti-heroes as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman[,]” this will also explore the inherent problems of comparing him to other icons whose diversities of depth have been explored in multiple disconnected adaptations while Freddy largely exists in one continuity. Ultimately, a model of viewing the Elm Street franchise – and Freddy himself – as a multiplicity rather than a continuity; each film a variation of the same story told through different thematic and critical lenses, with Freddy’s characterisation changing to fit each one as opposed to, despite the franchise’s increasingly convoluted attempts, presenting him as a canonically consistent character.